Revealed: The number of Leeds City Council staff earning more than £100,000

070218 One of the weathered stone lions alongside the pillars of Leeds Town Hall.'Pictures taken on a Nikon D3s camera with a 12-24 mm lens at 19mm , with an exposure of 1/250th sec at f9 with an ISO 0f 320.

Newly-released figures have revealed 15 senior officers at Leeds City Council were paid salaries of over £100,000 last year.

The earnings - for the financial year of April 2016 to March 2017 - included seven members of staff who raked in over £140,000 a year.

These included top earner Tom Riordan, the council’s chief executive, whose salary for the year was listed as £176,474 - a figure which has not changed since 2011.

The number of those earning in excess of £100,000 was, however, down from last year, when 18 senior council officers were said to top the threshold.

A total of 320 members of staff commanded a salary of over £50,000 last year, according to the figures published by the council on the Leeds Data Mill.

In 2016 the council announced its first major overhaul in ten years to cut the size of its leadership team in a bid to make “significant savings”.

This included not replacing the post of deputy chief executive when Alan Gay retired.

The latest figures show his salary was set at £161,136 for the last financial year.

A spokesperson for Leeds City Council said since 2010, around £60m had been saved in staffing costs.

He said: “The number of senior staff at Leeds City Council is continuing to reduce in line with our ongoing commitment to maximising savings and efficiencies while protecting frontline services in the face of continued annual funding cuts. Since 2010 we have saved approximately £60m a year in staffing costs despite being the second-biggest council in the UK, including deleting the post of deputy chief executive.

“The council currently employs 46 less staff earning over £50,000 than in 2015 and this has been achieved in the face of reduced core funding from the government of £267m between 2010 and 2020.”

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, which releases a ‘town hall rich list’ report on council executive pay each year, said of Leeds City Council’s latest figures: “At a time when councils are making dramatic but necessary savings, these salaries will strike taxpayers as absolutely remarkable.

“Leeds residents deserve clarity on what these jobs entail.

“Those at the top of Leeds City Council need to explain why so many of their staff are paid this generously and what value their jobs provide to taxpayers.”

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